We are very proud to be working with one of our energy suppliers, npower Business Solutions (nBS) on several social value initiatives that support our customers and the communities they represent.
One of the projects was collaborating with an education charity, Energy Sparks.
Energy Sparks provides data insights, action prompts, and educational resources to help schools develop their climate action plans, make big energy and carbon savings, and develop pupils’ sustainability skills. They analyse the school’s half-hourly energy data and provide insights and tips on ways to reduce energy consumption. The savings not only reduce the carbon emissions but also reduce bills, meaning that the school’s budget can be focused on education rather than on wasted energy.
With the correct information, support through lesson plans and activities, the whole school community can work together, combining the facilities team, teachers, and most importantly, pupils, in becoming more aware of energy and identifying opportunities to reduce consumption.
The average school engaging with Energy Sparks reduces their bills by 10% in the first year, which saves the average Primary school over 7 tonnes of CO2 and £5000. In Secondary schools, it’s an incredible 26 tonnes and £21,000!
Energy Sparks interprets the energy data and provides an analysis of the schools’ gas and electricity use, giving action prompts and energy-saving priorities via pupil and staff dashboards, suggested lesson plans and activities, and weekly alert emails. There is access to over 140 downloadable education resources to develop pupil understanding of energy use and its impact. The schools record their activities to participate in competitions to win prizes, which engages the pupils’ curiosity.
The data is used to benchmark each school’s energy use against other similar schools around the country, so schools know if they are doing well or if there’s room for improvement.
In the collaboration between LASER, nPower Business Solutions, and Energy Sparks, there have been 25 schools involved and over 13,000 pupils.
In the collaboration between LASER, nBS and Energy Sparks there have been 25 schools involved and over 13,000 pupils.
We’re thrilled to report some great success stories so far:
Lea Forest Primary School reduced their annual energy bills by 14%.
Boxgrove C of E Primary used the on-line resources to initiate a “turn it off” campaign to reduce their electricity use over the Christmas Holidays by a remarkable 62% compared with the year before.
13 schools also received in person workshops from specialist environmental educators with over 2000 pupils attending interactive and fun assemblies and 400 pupils attending workshops to learn more about energy and opportunities to reduce consumption at home and in school.
The workshop facilitator engaged the children really well from the start. He provided information that was challenging, explanatory, global AND specific to us and this provided both children and staff with information that was likely to be behaviour changing even after the one input.… It was great that the wider context of climate change was explained appropriately to the children and yet they were successfully made aware of what they could do on a daily basis to make a difference on an individual and a school level. That was very well done!
Vanessa Pearce, Headteacher, Beaudesert Lower School
We are looking for schools that would like to engage with Energy Sparks and really get stuck into using the resources to reduce your energy use.
If you’re a LASER customer with Intelligent Analytics package with nBS, then contact us to express an interest in participating in the Year 2 program, spaces are limited so allocation will be on a first come, first served basis.
Reach out to our Social Value Champion & Energy Procurement Manager, Kathleen Reid at: kathleen.reid@laserenergy.org.uk
LASER and nPower Business Solutions (nBS) came together in 2024 to develop a Social Value plan as part of the 2024 – 2028 Electricity Flexible Procurement and Supply Framework. Helping food banks was at the top of the list. Read all about the food banks nominated and the difference the funding has made.
Launching July 2024, TotalEnergies, in partnership with LASER, launched their community fund competition as part of a joint social value initiative. Available exclusively to TotalEnergies customers on our Flexible Procurement Framework, they had a £5,000 fund open to applicants who wanted to make a difference to their community centre.
We are very proud to be working with one of our energy suppliers, nPower Business Solutions on several social value initiatives that support our customers and the communities they represent. One of the projects was collaborating with an education charity, Energy Sparks to deliver energy workshops to schools.